The first full week is done. It was good to get a complete for our daily routines and tweak a few things. Squeezing in snack time has been the biggest challenge. Last week we reviewed the short a and i sounds. We practiced writing complete sentences and responding to questions in writing. We learned about analogies, homophones and practiced defining words. Your kids worked hard and did a great job.

 

****Reminders***

·         You might have noticed that we are leaving Tucker Hall earlier than last year. We, Walden teachers, felt that the students were being required to stay in Tucker Hall to long. We are now picking up the students at 7:50. We are utilizing this time to allow them to go to the bathroom, put their things away, get water and sharpen their pencils. So please don’t panic, you’re not late. Students arriving after 7:50 may just walk down to the classroom.

·         New date for Open House is September 14.

 

We will continue with Theme 1 of the Houghton Mifflin program titled Silly Stories. We will review the sounds of short o, u, and e words by playing an interactive game on the smartboard followed by the story Daddy, Could I Have an Elephant. Julius by Angela Johnson is the main literature selection for this week. We will use the story to compare realism and fantasy on Tuesday. The students will reread the story and practice responding to questions in writing on Wednesday. Our vocabulary focus will be synonyms and our writing focus will be creating a story on Thursday.

 

Last week we began using our writer’s notebook and the mad math minutes.   The writer’s notebook concept is following the book Notebook Know How by Aimee Buckner. The book focuses on the students becoming creative writers and at the same time uses the notebook as a resource tool. The mad math minutes allow the students to practice basic facts. This process is set up in the classroom so that the students move through the sheets at their own pace, set their own goals and determine how they are going to obtain their goals.

 

 

Monday – We will continue to work with place value using $1, $10 and $100 dollar bills. We will play the money exchange game and follow up with counting bills in their math journal.

 

Tuesday - We will begin using math boxes and the introduction of My Reference Book. They will see how their book can be helpful to them as they work in their journals.

 

Wednesday – We practice addition facts and finding the missing addends using the Two Fisted Penny game.

 

Thursday – We will explore counting patterns on the number grid. The students will use these patterns in a small group to create a number scroll. 

 

Friday – We will utilize this time to review the concepts that we work on throughout the week.